ASSEB HSLC Fine Art (E) flashcards
ASSEB HSLC Fine Art (E) · Build recall with a focused review session.
33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Elements of art
- The basic visual components used to build any artwork: line, shape, form, value, texture, space, and colour. They are organized by principles such as balance and emphasis.
- Asymmetrical balance
- A composition balanced by unequal visual weights rather than mirror symmetry. A large pale shape may balance a small dark shape placed further from the centre.
- Negative space
- The unoccupied area surrounding or between subjects in a composition. Skilful use of negative space can define form and create visual tension or rest.
- Golden ratio
- A proportion of roughly 1:1.618 considered visually harmonious. It appears in classical architecture and composition grids and relates to the rule of thirds.
- One-point perspective
- A drawing system with a single vanishing point on the horizon line. Front-facing planes remain true, while receding parallel edges converge to that point.
- Horizon line
- The line marking the viewer's eye level in a perspective drawing. Objects above it show their underside; objects below it reveal their top surface.
- Foreshortening
- The visual compression of a form that recedes along the line of sight. A forearm pointing at the viewer appears shorter than one held sideways.
- Cross-hatching
- A shading technique using sets of parallel lines crossed by another set. Density and angle of the lines control the value and texture of the drawing.
- Chiaroscuro
- Strong contrasting treatment of light and dark to model three-dimensional form. It creates volume and dramatic depth, especially in Renaissance and Baroque painting.
- Complementary colours
- Hues opposite each other on the colour wheel, such as red and green. Placed together they produce maximum contrast and can intensify each other optically.
- Analogous colours
- Hues adjacent on the colour wheel, such as blue, blue-green, and green. They share a common hue and produce harmonious, low-contrast colour schemes.
- Tint, shade, tone
- A tint adds white to a hue, a shade adds black, and a tone adds grey. These change value and saturation while the underlying hue remains identifiable.
- Simultaneous contrast
- The phenomenon in which a colour appears different depending on its surrounding colour. A grey looks warmer on a cool ground and cooler on a warm ground.
- Jaapi and gamosa
- Assamese cultural objects: the jaapi is a conical bamboo-and-cane headgear, and the gamosa is a white cloth with a red border used as a mark of respect.
- Madhubani painting
- A Mithila folk painting tradition from Bihar, traditionally by women, using double outlines and motifs such as fish, lotus, and peacocks on walls or paper.
- Warli painting
- A tribal art of Maharashtra using white rice paste on a mud-brown ground. Figures are built from triangles and circles, often within spiral or ritual compositions.
- Pattachitra
- A cloth-based scroll painting tradition of Odisha, using bold outlines, flat colour, and natural pigments to depict deities and narrative themes.
- Ajanta murals
- Buddhist cave paintings in Maharashtra depicting Jataka tales. Executed in a dry-plaster tempera-like technique, they show refined modelling and narrative composition.
- Nataraja bronze
- A Chola-period bronze of Shiva as cosmic dancer, made by lost-wax casting. The ring of fire and drum and flame symbolize creation and destruction.
- Bengal School
- An early twentieth-century Indian art movement led by Abanindranath Tagore. It revived Indian themes and wash technique in reaction to academic European realism.
- Progressive Artists' Group
- A group formed in Bombay in 1947, including Souza, Raza, Husain, and Ara. It combined modern European idioms with Indian subject matter and identity.
- Impressionism
- A French movement of the 1870s using broken colour, visible brushwork, and plein-air observation to capture fleeting effects of light, as in Monet's works.
- Cubism
- A movement led by Picasso and Braque that fragmented subjects into multiple viewpoints. Analytic Cubism used muted tones; synthetic Cubism introduced collage and brighter colour.
- Surrealism
- A movement of the 1920s exploring dreams and the unconscious through incongruous juxtaposition and automatism. Key figures include Dali, Magritte, and Ernst.
- Pop Art
- A movement of the 1950s-60s drawing on mass media and consumer imagery. Warhol used screen printing and Lichtenstein adopted comic-strip style.
- Watercolour technique
- Transparent painting using gum arabic binder and paper white. Wet-on-wet produces soft bleeding edges; wet-on-dry gives crisp, controlled marks.
- Impasto
- Thick application of paint, usually oil or acrylic, so that brush or palette-knife marks stand out from the surface and catch light.
- Buon fresco
- Painting with pigment on wet lime plaster, so the colour bonds with the wall as it sets. It is durable but must be executed quickly.
- Intaglio printing
- A printmaking family in which the image is cut into the plate and ink sits in the recessed lines. Etching and engraving are examples; pressure pulls ink onto paper.
- Lost-wax casting
- A bronze-casting method using a wax model coated in clay. The wax melts out, molten metal fills the void, and the mould is broken to release the sculpture.
- Feldman's four steps
- A sequence for art criticism: description of what is seen, analysis of how it is organized, interpretation of meaning, then judgement of success.
- Formalism
- An aesthetic theory judging art mainly by its formal qualities, such as line, colour, and composition, rather than by subject matter, emotion, or context.
- Iconography
- The study of symbols and subject matter in art, identifying conventional motifs such as haloes, attributes, and gestures and their intended meanings.